The nation's housing market is sending out warning signs. Home prices in Seoul have surged at a pace unseen in recent years, while rents — both jeonse deposits and monthly — are rising sharply, inflicting growing hardship on ordinary households. Fears of a full-blown housing crisis have intensified following forecasts that next year’s apartment supply in Seoul will fall to nearly half this year’s level. With prices climbing and supply drying up, the outlook for would-be homeowners and renters alike is increasingly bleak. According to real estate platform Zigbang, the nationwide supply of move-in-ready apartments is projected at roughly 172,000 units for next year, a decline of nearly 30 percent from this year. The situation is most alarming in Seoul, where expected supply will plunge by 48 percent to just over 16,000 units. In a city where demand remains persistently strong, such a sharp contraction in new housing is almost guaranteed to exacerbate price instability. The effects are already visible. Seoul apartment prices rose more than 8 percent during the first 11 months of t